Thom Nickels: Will USA 250 lead to a better Philadelphia? Don’t bet on it.
The poet T.S. Eliot once wrote, “April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.”
The quote is from Eliot’s poem, The Waste Land, exactly where Philadelphia seems to be headed if liberal Democrats continue to control the city far into the future.
I can cite a million examples why this is so but let me start with this:
Featured on the City Council’s webpage this month was a large photo of the Committee of the Whole after the unanimous passage of ICE OUT legislation. The photo shows a motley crew of ardent supporters holding ICE OUT (of Philly) signs. In the mix there’s Kendra Brooks, a Working Families Party member, who introduced the legislation, as well as Rue Landau, the Council’s first out lesbian member. Both women have been pushing various radical agendas since the election of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker.
“With ICE set to receive billions in new funding, buying detention centers in our surrounding counties, and routinely being deployed to police our cities, silence is no longer an option,” said Brooks. “People want to know what we are doing to protect this city. With the ICE Out package, we are showing them.”
Yes, Ms. Brooks, it’s gonna be Philly against the federal government! Landau then offered her three cents:
“Today’s committee vote on the ICE OUT package affirms that we will stand with our immigrant communities and refuse to turn our backs on those who call this city home. Philadelphia has always been a city shaped by immigrants. This legislation honors that legacy by ensuring our policies reflect the dignity and respect that our neighbors deserve every day…”
Like so many Democrats, Landau is in the business of calling illegal aliens “immigrant communities,” a gross insult to everyone who came to this country legally. This is left-wing garbage we’ve been hearing for a long time.
In any event, the ICE OUT legislation will head to a final vote on April 23, when the mayor is expected to sign it into law.
In other news, Mayor Parker presented her “One Philly, One Future” 2027 budget which includes a proposal to tax rideshares (Uber and Lyft) to the tune of $1.00 per ride. The mayor at first proposed a 20 cents per ride tax in March but upped that figure because a higher tax would bring in more money for the Philadelphia School District. This clause in the 2027 budget is being fought aggressively by both Uber and Lyft, as well it should be, because it will hurt average Philadelphians for a cause that is suspect at best.
Recall the fiasco surrounding the city soda tax for Philadelphia schools, a tax that did nothing for the schools outside of financing the corruption that was already there. I’ll get to that corruption in a bit.
The talk in the city now is the 250th birthday of the nation, or the 2026 Semiquincentennial when the city will host a number of international sporting events. Mayor Parker hails the celebration as if it’s the catalyst that will remake Philadelphia into a world-class city. Her enthusiasm is reminiscent of Mayor Rizzo’s excitement in 1976 when he believed the city was on the cusp of something truly remarkable during the 1976 Bicentennial.
“With the MLB All-Star Game, FIFA Men’s World Cup games, golf’s PGA Championship, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps 250th anniversary and many more events set for 2026 for the Philadelphia region, almost $60 million has been committed by Philadelphia to the cause,” the mayor’s office revealed in 2025.
She then talked about a $1 million grant program for community organizations to host events in neighborhoods across Philadelphia. Those grants will range from $25,000 to $100,000, with applications open until the end of April.
“No matter your race, your class, your socioeconomic status, zip code, religion, sexual orientation, or identity – this 250th Semiquincentennial celebration is for you,” Parker said.
How marvelous things sound on paper. Yet it seems that even the best laid plans in the city always meet with disappointment.
Kathryn Ott Lovell, president & CEO of the Philadelphia Visitor Center and Philadelphia250 said. “All eyes will be on our city as the epicenter of American democracy in 2026. The resources committed today will allow Philadelphia’s cultural, historical, and community partners to bring their ambitious plans to life, welcoming millions of residents and visitors to be part of Philadelphia’s extraordinary celebrations in 2026.”
Okay, Philadelphia may have been the epicenter of American democracy once upon a time, but it has in fact eclipsed that status with its left-of-center radical policies in nearly all branches of government. Sad but true.
And here we come to the public schools, the schools that Mayor Parker wants to flush with more and more taxpayer money. These public schools (where anti-ICE and pro-Palestinian protests are highly encouraged), as well as the city’s high taxes, dysfunctional government, and urban blight, Philly is still “The Little Engine That Could” — meaning, it has never quite become the world-class city it aspires to be.
In 2022, Forbes rated Philly as the dirtiest in America; in 2020, the city was rated the poorest in the country. Then there’s the Philly attitude: the city was voted the rudest in the U.S. in 2024, and Eagles fans were voted the worst in the nation.
And if Philly voters don’t challenge Parker on the rideshare tax, by January 2027 her idea will become law.
Call me a cynic, but when you combine radical politics with rudeness and urban decay, what you get is a city that probably won’t attract that many international tourists for the big 250th birthday celebration. Or, if the city does manage to lure the average tourist in Belgium to spend money to travel here, once they ride the subways they’ll experience something comparable to an electric shock: the sight of so many drug-addicted homeless covered in open sores and urine-soaked clothes, or masses of loud teens running from train car to car despite the posted warnings that train “surfing” can be fatal.
Philly’s subculture of fentanyl-meth consumption — both drugs laced with “tranq,” a veterinary sedative that sends users to the floor after they take their first puff and that often results in death – is significant enough to stand out as a “Philly Thing,” with users bent over at the waist and walking in circles or spread out on the sidewalks like the shot victims of a revolution.
“Dead or alive?” is the question many Philadelphians ask as they step over these bodies and make their way to the latest “No Kings” protest.
You see, woke politics – anti-ICE, pro-Islamist, pro-genderqueer rainbow hair – goes hand-in-hand with urban decay, homelessness, and the widespread use of fentanyl. It’s part of the reason why left-wing radicals and “No Kings” protesters look like homeless people themselves. As Ann Landers might have said were she alive today: One must always dress down for leftist revolutions; a “vote” for the decline of Western culture manifests itself in looking like a slob.
What may be mounting here — and I hope I am wrong — is a Minneapolis-style perfect storm as the FIFA World Cup and Wawa Welcome America takes off in the summer. At that time tourists can delight in soccer, eat, and drink while taking in an angry Philly ICE protest in front of City Hall. And in the fall, these same visitors can also look forward to the MLB All-Star game — which happens to coincide with Mawlid al-Nabl, celebrating the birth of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, which I’m sure will be celebrated in all Philly public schools.
All thanks to your tax dollars.
Thom Nickels is Broad + Liberty’s Editor at Large for Arts and Culture and the 2005 recipient of the AIA Lewis Mumford Award for Architectural Journalism. He writes for City Journal, New York, and Frontpage Magazine. Thom Nickels is the author of fifteen books, including “Literary Philadelphia” and ”From Mother Divine to the Corner Swami: Religious Cults in Philadelphia.” His latest work, “Ileana of Romania: Princess, Exile and Mother Superior,” will be published in May 2026.
